The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-05-31
THE COMING MAN.
The Sort of Creature Who Is Gradually Be-
ing Evolved by the Rapid Transit system.

ing Evolved by the Rapid Transit System.
Charles Dudley Warner, in June Harper.
Out somewhere on the Santa Fe route, where
the desert of day like the desert of the
day before, and the Pullman car rolls and swings
ever the wide waste beneath the blue sky, day
after day, under its black flag of smoke. in the
early gray of morning, when the men were wait
ing their turn at the ablution bowl, slip of a
boy perhaps aged seven. stood balancing himself
on his little legs. clad in knlckerbockers, hiding
his time, with ali the nonchalance of an old
campaigner. How did you sleep,
CAPT" asked we'll meaning elderly
gentleman well. thank you," was
sleeping-car" Always does Great horrorsl
Hardly out of his swaddlng clothes and yet he
always sleeps we'll in sleeper Was he born
on the wheels? Was he Graded in a Pullman!
He has always been in motion. probably; he was
started thirty miles an hour. no doubt, this
marvellous boy of new He not
born in a house at rest but the locomotive
snatched him along with shrek and roar be-
fore his eyes fairly open. and he
rocked in section and his first sensation
of life that Of moving rapidly over
vast arid spaces, through cattle ranges. and
along canyons. The effect of quick and easy To-
comotion character may have been noted be-
fore, but it seems that here is the production of
a new of man, the direct product of our
railway 1t is not simply that this boy is
mature, but he must be a different and a nobler
sort of a boy than one born, say, at home or
a canal boat; for whether he was born on the
rail or not, he belongs to the railway system of
civilization. Before ne gets into trousers he is
old in experience, ana he has discounted many
of the novelties that usually break
gradually the pilgrim in this world.
He belongs to the expansive
that must live in motion, whose proper home is
the Pullman (which will probably be improved
in time into dustless, understanding, we'll
aired bedroom and whose domestic life will be
the wing so to speak. The Interstate commerce
bill will pass him along without friction from
end to end of the Union. and perhaps uniform
divorce law will enable him to change his mari
tai relations at any place where he happens to
dine. This promising lad is only faint intima-
ton OF what all coming to when We fully
acquire the freedom of the continent,
and come into that responsiveness
characterizes the great West 1t is burst of
Joyous exuberance that comes from the of
an illimitabe horizon. 1t shows itself in
the tender words of local newspaper at
Bowie A. IT,, on the death of beloved citizen:
Death loves shining mark and she hit
dandy when she turned loose JIM" And
also in the closing words of New Mexico
obituary, which the Kansas Magazine quotes:
Her tired spirit released from the pain
racking body and scared aloft TO eternal glory
ar 40 Denver time" We die, Us it WERE in
motion as we sleep, and there is nowhere anv
boundary to expansion. Perhaps shall
stand the cerm-rest being only change of mo-
tion-and we shall not be able to sleep except
on the cars and whether we die by Denver time
or by the ninetieth meridian, shall only
change our time. Blessed be this slip of a boy
who is q man before he is an infant. and teaches
MS what ra Did transit do for race! The
only thing that can possibly hinder US in our
progress will be second childhood; we have
abolished first.